Despite a persistent increase in South Korea’s divorce rate, our understanding of the economic determinants of divorce in South Korea is very limited. In particular, the relationship between nonstandard employment and divorce has received little attention, even though the number of nonstandard employees has rapidly increased in recent years. This paper examines the extent to which one’s employment type is associated with marital dissolution in South Korea, using nationally representative longitudinal data (the Korea Welfare Panel Study from 2007 to 2013). Results from discrete-time hazard models show that for men, the odds of divorce of nonstandard workers are estimated to be around 1.82 times the odds of standard employees. However, the risk of divorce for the self-employed is not statistically different from that of standard workers. In contrast, for women, employment type is not associated with divorce. These findings indicate that men’s employment quality and labor market status are still more important for marital stability than women’s in a context characterized by a strong male-breadwinner norm and rigid gender division of labor. This study contributes to the literature on economic determinants of marital dissolution by documenting gender differences in the relationship between various employment types and the risk of divorce in South Korea. Findings of this study will also have important implications for family policies in South Korea.

Twentieth century has seen a significant number of social changes, taking in different forms of revolution, revolts and protests. Nevertheless, as the world stabilized with the termination of Cold War, contention also seemed to have died down. Dominating theories concluded with generalizations that contentions are inevitable process of social change; it comes and goes. South Korea, on the other hand, remains an anomaly due to contentious actors’ persisting influence in the society. In reality, contention does not exist in isolation from the society, but arises from the very soil of it. South Korea actors, the institutions and parties reflecting contentious identity attests its protracted existence beyond the contentious episodes. I argue that contentious politics is not an isolated event that belongs in the transitionary period, but is capable of creating a continuously interacting variable in the society. Thus, in the case of South Korea and its protracted democratization, contention needs to be understood as an organic product of South Korean history that continues to influence the contentious identity to fulfill their self-perceived historical duty of achieving a legitimate government. / 2023-12-30

The research objectives were to determine (a) interrelationships among components of Korean apparel retail stores' management strategies, (b) effects of perceived environmental uncertainty on their management strategies, (c) effects of stores' management strategies on their performance, and (d) market-orientation strategies the stores have implemented. Four hundred top managers of Korean apparel stores in Seoul, Busan, Suwon, Daejeon, and Daegu completed a questionnaire. A structural equations model was used to test the hypotheses concerning relationships between the research variables. The exogenous variables include components of perceived environmental uncertainty (market turbulence, competitive intensity) and top management's willingness to adapt a changing market (top-management emphasis and risk aversion). The endogenous variables include components of market-orientation strategy (intelligence generation, intelligence dissemination, response design, response implementation), organicity of organizational structure (centralization, formalization, specialization), and satisfaction with store performance (relative to other Korean retail stores, relative to key competitors). Many of the hypotheses were supported. Perceived market turbulence positively affected stores' market-orientation strategies and functional specialization. Market orientation strategy positively affected stores' functional specialization and centralization of decision making. Intelligence generation positively affected satisfaction with store performance relative to other Korean retail stores and relative to key competitors, and response implementation positively affected satisfaction with store performance relative to other Korean retail stores. Some positive relationships were found between perceived environmental uncertainty and top management's willingness to adapt to a changing market. Also, seven of the eight tested relationships were significant and positive between market-orientation strategy and top management's willingness to adapt to a changing market. Top-management emphasis positively affected organicity of organizational structure. Formalization of store structure positively affected satisfaction with store performance relative to other Korean retail stores and relative to key competitors. A major conclusion is that Korean apparel stores' top managers did not view environmental conditions as important influences on their stores' performance, although their perceptions of environmental uncertainty affected their stores' strategic management in such terms as response design, intelligence generation, and intelligence dissemination.. In addition, despite the positive effects of perceived environmental uncertainty on stores' centralization and functional specialization, the top managers appeared reluctant to fundamentally change their stores' organizational structures. / Ph. D.

This research examines how relative deprivation theory can be applied to study the success of protest movements and their subsequent impact on the process of democratization of the South Korean state. This study hopes to provide a more comprehensive approach to how the role of protests in the development of a democratic state is explained within the field of political science. Utilizing both a quantitative and qualitative research design, this work applied a case study analysis as well as a supplemental data analysis regarding the success of Korean protest movements and their impact on democratization as well as global views of democratization as previously mentioned. For the case study analysis, I focused on four protest movements in South Korea and applied relative deprivation theory in each case. Then, I defined five metrics for protest success based on my previous analysis and used these metrics to conduct a comparative analysis regarding the short and long term success of each protest movement. For the data analysis, I utilized Systemic Peace's Polity Project Series V dataset in order to quantify changes in the qualities of the regime over time, on a scale ranging from highly authoritarian to highly democratic regime qualities. Based on this mixed-mode analysis, I find that protest movements that were linked to progressive deprivation led to most successful shifts towards democratic regime qualities in the long-term. This project is significant to the field as it will address criticisms in previously discounted protest theory as well as explore the changing narrative of democratization in the modern world and dispel historical misconceptions of political culture in East Asia, focusing on Korea.

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A new retail institution type has emerged in South Korea that is unique in comparison to any previous retail institution type. The study of this emergence and its growth has implications for the future structure of retail both in South Korea and in other parts of the world. To proceed with a study of this new retail institution type, appropriate theory base and research findings about past retailing in South Korea were needed; however, a search of literature indicated that South Korean retailing has been the subject of limited and mostly fragmented research. Historically, many researchers have endeavored to study retail evolution in Western countries. Although extensively studied, used in conceptual work, and applied as foundation in empirical work, some limitations exist with previous retail evolution theories: inability to cover all types of retail institutions, lack of geographic universality, and limited quantification. In conjunction with these limitations, the historic evolution and current structures of retail institution types in South Korea, on the surface, appear to be very different from the evolution and structure of retailing in the Western hemisphere. Several reasons for this difference appear to involve the unique features of South Korea and its culture: retailing types were imported to South Korea within a very compressed time period, unique geography includes small land size and high population concentration in South Korea, the government control and the political insulation of South Korea are different from Western cultures. The purpose of this study was to examine the evolution of retail institution types in South Korea with a proposed model. To examine the evolution of retail institution types in South Korea and to develop a more universal research model to explain this evolution, a qualitative research design was used. Specifically, a modified grounded theory type of design, with a historical/ comparative analysis method, was used in this study. First, the grounded theory process was used to develop a graphical representation or model using information from previous research. Second, the researcher collected publicly available data in South Korea from government offices, trade and industry associations, public libraries, and websites on the Internet. Through comparative analysis, data from the South Korean retail industry were examined and compared to the working model. According to the data analysis, the CREM was partially supported. Regarding the spiral evolution, all types of indicators (e.g., sales, profit, market share, operating cost) did not continuously increase as retail institutions mature, which was in contrast to the CREM, but fluctuated whenever environmental influences interrupted the growth. Four spiral endings were found: (1) upgrade, (2) stay and eventually go out of business, (3) downgrade, and (4) change types of retail institution. In the conflict part, a new retail institution type started competing with its own type, other traditional retail institution types, and a new retail institution type; therefore, the conflict portion in the CREM was also supported. Environmental influences affected not only the emergence of a new retail institution type but also the conflict among retail institution types and the evolution process. In addition, a new reciprocal relationship was found between environmental influences and a new retail institution type and between consumer preference of store/product attributes and a new retail institution type. The environmental influence part was therefore partially supported. The consumer influence variables in the CREM were also supported. For future research, the final CREM could be the base of research in many types of retail institution and in any countries that have unique retail environments. Using the CREM from this study of retail evolution in South Korea, current and future retail institutions could predict both consumers' changes depending on environmental influences and what competitive advantages they must achieve to provide benefits to these consumers. In addition, researchers, both academic and retail, could use the final CREM to study the emergence and characteristics of a new retail institution type by analyzing current retail institution types / Ph. D.

There has been a long history of violence between North and South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953 and North Korea is still a current threat to the South due to their missile launches and naval clashes. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the interactions between North and South Korea from 1998 to 2006 and answer the question: What accounts for the difference in responses to North Korean threats by South Korean presidents from the same party with similar stands toward North Korea? Although South Korean Presidents Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun shared similar approaches to North Korea, why did they not always respond in the same way? To answer this question, I examine a case in which North Korea test-launched a rocket and a case in which North Korean vessels cross the Northern Limit Line during each administration. By comparing these cases, I explain why the presidents continued their engagement policy and refrained from condemning the North in all but the case of the 2006 missile test. I test a set of explanations made by experts for South Korean approaches to North Korea to see which explanation best fits each case. I argue that each response was due to a combination of explanations rather than one single explanation. Even though each explanation had some merit, some explanations were more applicable than the others. Both Kim and Roh expressed concern over North Korea due to security and economic concerns. However, as the years and threatening behavior went on the public and international community started to take a greater notice to North Korea's activity and wanted the South Korean government to take action. As a result, public opinion and international pressure partially influenced Roh to shift his responses towards North Korea and halt aid after the 2006 missile launch. / Master of Arts

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Riverside, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-162).